Spain speeds deployment of optic fibre

From David Del Valle in Madrid

September 4, 2015

Telefonica is speeding up the deployment of its optic fibre network to reach a 97 per cent coverage of all Spanish households by 2020, with a remaining 3 per cent out of the plans due to technnical or geographical reasons, as confirmed the president of Telefonica España, Luis Miguel Gilpérez.

To meet the target, the company must pass between 13 and 14 million homes over the next five years to reach a total of between 27 and 28 million homes – currently the company already covers 14 million. The estimated investment is €100 per home representing a Capex of €1.4 million plus €2.1 million for the additional €150 per each connected home.

Telefonica has already invested €10 billion between 2010 and 2014, out of which €7.5 million on fibre and 4G services. The company also plans to extend the 4G coverage to 100 per cent of the population by 2020.

“There will not be a digital gap (in Spain). We will be the only country with digital services in every place”, said Gilpérez adding that “Spain has become a paradise for telecommunications”.

The president of Telefonica España claimed that the company will end the year with 2 million optic fibre clients, 4 million users of Movistar Fusion and 4 million subscribers to pay TV (Movistar Plus).

Gilpérez also announced that Telefonica will be soon launching a symmetric 300 Mbps download and upload Movistar Fusion service soon after Orange Spain has launched a similar service. In June, the company tripled the maximum available download speed from 100 Mbps to 300 Mbps and will now increase the upload speed from 30 Mbps to 300 Mbps over the next months.

Meantime, Vodafone Spain is speeding the deployment of its optic fibre network and will invest €1.1 billion this year, over 20 per cent of its revenues. Over the last two years, the company has spent €1.838 billion in the deployment of the network that reaches 81 per cent in the country.

According to the company, 4G + is already available in 126 cities with speeds of up to 300 Mbytes per second.